Elon Musk Just Revealed the Official Launch Date for the Tesla Semi

In Brief

After a charged wait and a brief delay, Elon Musk has set the reveal of the Tesla Semi, a cheaper and more efficient form of long-haul trucking, for this Thursday.

In a Sunday afternoon Twitter post, Tesla founder Elon Musk announced that the company’s electric semi truck will be revealed this Thursday, November 16—and that it would “blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension.”

Tesla Semi Truck unveil to be webcast live on Thursday at 8pm! This will blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension. Just need to find my portal gun …

The Tesla Semi has been highly anticipated since Musk teased its prototype at the 2017 TED conference. The scant details that have become available since then suggest the long-haul trucking vehicle will be significantly cheaper, safer, and more environmentally friendly than current options, particularly when utilized in “platoons.” The truck will reportedly have a range of about 200 to 300 miles between charges.

“A lot of people don’t think you can do a heavy-duty, long-range truck that’s electric, but we’re confident that this can be done,” Musk told shareholders at their annual meeting in June. He originally set the semi’s release date for September but postponed its reveal to address bottlenecks in Model 3 production and increase the company’s battery production to aid areas affected by Hurricane Maria.

It seems that the wait will soon be over; particularly good news for the trucking industry, which currently contributes about 20 percent of the transportation sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. In September, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas suggested that the Tesla Semi could set off huge changes in the industry, potentially reducing costs by up to 70 percent.

“We believe TSLA’s reveal of its autonomous, electric Class 8 semi-truck this month could be the biggest catalyst in Trucking in decades and potentially set off separation between the technology leaders and the laggards among carriers, shippers, truck OEMs and suppliers,” he wrote to his clients, according to Electrek.

Watch this space for more news of the Semi on the 16th — and don’t forget your portal gun.